


Waves Upon the Sand

by wildrosesandpeonies



Category: Classic Doctor Who, Classic Who - Fandom, Doctor Who
Genre: Multi, Nostalgia, Remembrance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-19 06:25:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1459279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildrosesandpeonies/pseuds/wildrosesandpeonies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A small drabble that takes place in the days and years after "The Chase." As much as I loved Barbara and Ian's ending, I felt it needed something more, just a little extra. So here's my two cents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waves Upon the Sand

Their lives were quiet now.

The England they knew had moved on without them, but they had moved on from England. What mattered the length of skirts or new music fad when centuries into the future, they knew Susan was somewhere restoring London to its former glory, in a time period Vicki had read about in her history books.

Their lives were mundane, ordinary, now. A cup of tea, a pint of beer, a good book. Always homework. Yes, they had managed to find new teaching jobs. They could never satisfactory explain their two missing years to anyone. They tried lies, they tried the truth. Neither worked. They had no family to worry about, but their friends always glanced with wariness at them whenever they spoke of that time. Why the tall tales? Yet Barbara and Ian spoke with such conviction and truth that no matter. At least they were happy was the final agreement of their friends.

Never sentimentalize. They didn't. But they did have one regret. That they had left Susan they way they did. Of course, the Doctor was right - she was better off. But they could have firmly said goodbye. They knew Susan had an inner strength that would get her through those dark days alone. That Susan always underestimated herself. Still, they had come to love her. But they had hurried away. As if in shame. She had deserved more than that. Such a brave soul in a new world.

They always smiled when they walked pass a phonebox. Of course, it couldn't be the Doctor, but it was nice to know he was out there somewhere, journeying with Vicki. Vicki. Dearest Vicki who had bought the spring back into the Doctor's step and who would help him get through his loneliness now that Barbara and Ian were not there.

So the the days and years passed like waves upon the sand. They drifted apart, they came back together. One realization they had was that there was nobody like them in all of London. How could there be? They had seen life on other planets. Had seen so much, yet so little of the universe. However, they were pleased they had come back just in time to see the beginnings of space flight. Little did the bickering Russians and Americans know how far the earth's descendants would travel among the stars. 

They had drifted apart, but come back together. They were no longer the straightlaced, easily on stepped pair. They were determined. They found adventures. They enjoyed change. But it wasn't until they came home that they realized they loved each other. Two polite teachers with nothing remarkable about them. Two polite teachers who only were acquaintances before they entered the TARDIS. But they had become friends on the TARDIS, and somewhere, somehow, friendship had deepened to love. A quiet love like themselves. A surprising love that changed them both. A love made mutual by an grumpy old man, his beguiling granddaughter, and a young space adventurous always longing to see more.

They never married. Their family was among the stars. Yes, their family. They never saw them again, but they knew they were always just around the corner. Perhaps not in this time, but in the London of the future, the London of the Past. They believed if they looked closely enough, they could see the Doctor's handprints all over London. Little did they know how right they were. They never married because after all they had shared together, there was no need to. Their love was enough.

Little did they know that somewhere in the stars, the Doctor would sometime dig out his Time Television to see what they were up too. They were his first companions. Perhaps that why he had such a soft spot for London and all of England now. They, and Susan. It amazed him to remember he had once hated these humans. Not now. He watched Barbara and Ian get old and grey. He thought about coming back to visit them. But how to explain his younger self? the regeneration? For all that he had exposed them to, he had still kept many of his secrets to himself. Let them remember the old man with a crutch and cape. 

And they did. Always.


End file.
